Lakewood to vote on surveillance cameras for Lakewood Center mall

The city wants to install a $580,000 system of surveillance and license-plate- reading cameras around the exterior of Lakewood Center mall by the end of the year. The cameras would be used to scan license plates and find vehicles wanted in connection with stolen vehicles, felony warrant suspects and Amber Alerts, according to a city staff report.

The council is expected to vote on the project at Tuesday night's meeting.

Deputy City Manager Carol Flynn Jacoby and City Manager Howard Chambers are recommending the council approve the project, which has been under consideration since June 2010, according to the staff report.

The project has 24 cameras, including 20 for automatic license plate recognition and four to pan, tilt and zoom.

The license plate recognition cameras would monitor and scan plates on vehicles going north and south on Lakewood Boulevard and Clark Avenue and east and west along Del Amo Boulevard and Candlewood Street, according to the report.

If a camera scans the license plate of a wanted vehicle, the Lakewood Sheriff's Station would be alerted and dispatchers would use the pan, tilt and zoom cameras to monitor the suspect vehicle and send deputies to follow it.

The license plate cameras would be located at four intersections: Lakewood Boulevard and Candlewood Street, Lakewood Boulevard and Del Amo Boulevard, Clark Avenue and Candlewood Street and Clark Avenue and Del Amo Boulevard.

The pan, tilt and zoom cameras also would be located at four intersections: Lakewood Boulevard and Hardwick Street, Clark Avenue and Hardwick Street, Del Amo Boulevard and Graywood Avenue, and Candlewood Street and Graywood Avenue.

Building permit fee hike

Also on the meeting agenda, the city wants to increase residential and business building and safety permit fees by 18percent. The fees wouldn't generate new revenue for the city but would help it break even in covering the costs to administer services, such as plan checks and on-site safety inspections, said city spokesman Bill Grady.

The fee increases are based on an outside consultant's study of Lakewood's cost to administer the various services.

For example, the cost to review and inspect a new residential electrical panel would rise from $67 to $79. The cost to review and inspect a typical $7,000 new roof would increase from $209 to $247, Grady said.